Peristera Fortress – Peshtera

The hill on which the fortress is located is known as St. Petka, and the name Peristera (“dove”, “pigeon place”) was first mentioned by Ivan Popov in his “Pages from the Past of the Cave”. For the origin of the name of the fortress that came into force the following legend: “When in the Byzantine Empire, in 313, there was a certain impression, one of the two species should be avoided. Thus a flock of pigeons fluttered from the hill of St. Petka. “In connection with this, it should be mentioned that the dove is the sign of Christ. It is very likely that the other name of the fortress and the name of the hill has come from the name of the St. Petka Church, whose ruins have been standing on the hill since time immemorial.

For the remains of the fortress, Stefan Zahariev first reported in his book “Geographic – historical – statistical description of the Tatar Pazardzhik kaasa”, published in Vienna in 1870. Later it is mentioned in the writings of Konstantin Irechek (1883).

The first archaeological excavations of the hill were carried out in 1954, and in 1958 and 1972, under the leadership of Tsvetana Gizdova, partial excavations were made, mainly drillings, which resulted in the monument being declared a Roman castle. The results are not published. Regular – Systematic archaeological excavations of the fortress were carried out in 2007, 2010 and 2011. The head of the site was the archaeologist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bonny Petrunova, at that time – Head of the Department of Medieval Archeology – Deputy Director of National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The discoveries in the archaeological research turned out to be quite good and valuable, even surprising, and it was decided that the already declared monument of culture should be restored under the project “Conservation, Restoration and Exhibition of Ancient and Medieval Fortress” Peristera “, located on Sveta Petka hill , the town of Peshtera “. The project was implemented by the Municipality of Peshtera until the beginning of 2014, with the financial support of the Operational Program “Regional Development” – 2007 – 2013.

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